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I took a look at the characters and left comments on the wiki sheets for @Pentius and @GROMkill.

@jbear -- please put the crunchy stuff for the Fey Beast Tamer theme on your sheet. Even if you’re not using it actively at the moment, it would really help me to have it there as a reference. (I don’t have access to the character builder on my machine, and it’s a pain to look up themes in the Compendium as bits are missing).

After breakfast, Sasha leads the group through the jungle toward the closest of the bird-reptile nests. The going is not too hard, as Sasha cleared a bit of a trail on her previous trip. Slightly less than a mile out of camp, the party comes across a disturbance--or rather the signs of one. Small branches are broken all the way to the canopy, as though an object of some size fell through recently.

Approaching cautiously, the party finds an adult bird-reptile lying dead in the undergrowth. The corpse is fresh, but there is no blood.

Heal 14 (active only)

It looks as though the creature was attacked while flying. It has injuries, but they are strangely bloodless. It might have already been dead when it fell. Also strange is the fact that scavengers seem to have mostly left the body alone.

"A curious beast," Hķ LŪ says. "I wonder what killed it? It is wounded, but there is no blood."
She sniffs at the carcass."It has been here long enough that we did not hear it fall, yet the insects have not descended on it."

Castile looks briefly at the carcass, but she keeps her eyes upward toward the sky. "It sounds like it was bludgeoned then, if there is no blood. Swatted right out of the sky."

Originally Posted by Mewness

"I think this one is a female," says Sasha. "The nest may be unguarded."

"I hope so! But would the bird's mate not still be at the nest?"

Immediate actions

Now that Castile has a few different actions she can take outside of her turn, I think I should include an easy reference in her combat posts. This should help to avoid drastic retcons or having to stop combat mid-round to see if I use an interrupt. Feel free to make the rolls for me. They are listed in order of priority (so use Shield Edge Block instead of Combat Challenge if the choice exists, etc).

1. Shield Edge Block when an adjacent enemy hits Castile with a close or melee attack and would have missed with a -4 penalty to the attack. Immediate Interrupt, +8 vs Fort, 2d6+4 damage and +4 THP. Effect: The target takes a -4 penalty to the triggering attack.

2. Combat Challenge when an adjacent enemy marked by Castile shifts or attacks an ally and doesn't include her in the attack. Immediate Interrupt, MBA vs AC. On a hit, the target is also pushed 1 if that would force it out of range for its triggering attack (no push otherwise).

3. Guardian's Counter when an ally within 2 squares of Castile is attacked and she isn't included. Immediate Interrupt, Castile and the ally switch places and she is the target instead. After the attack, she makes a basic attack vs the attacker.

Takahaan kneels beside the fallen creature. Inspecting it for a moment before looking up to his allies, he speaks. "Perhaps it was attacked with a spell. That would explain the lack of outside wounds. It could have been recent, which would explain the lack of decay. Be on your guard."

Turning to Sasha, he raises his voice again. "Where is this nest? I'm eager to find out what happened to this poor creature."

I think I wrote the description of the creature's wounds rather carelessly and gave the wrong impression. Its wounds are actually punctures (as if it has been bitten by sharp teeth or grasped by sharp claws). The punctures are deep enough to have bled, but there's no blood. Sorry about that.

The party moves on, leaving the body behind. As they leave the jungle, everyone hears a loud, high screaming noise, the sound that small animals make when in extreme distress. Sasha points to a set of rocky ledges on the cliff to the northeast. Circling overhead are three larger reptile-birds. As the party watches, one dives down, disappearing below the edge of the cliff, and the screaming gets even louder.

ďTheyíre attacking the nest!Ē cries Sasha, rushing forward impetuously and nocking an arrow to her bow.

GM:

ARE YOU WREADY TO WRANGLE?

This is a combat with a bit of skill challenge in it as well. The big bad pterosaurs are trying to eat the little defenseless pterosaurs. Each round, after the PCs go but before the bad guys go, the ďchicksĒ will each take one move action. They will generally move away from monsters that have recently attacked them, but will otherwise move randomly, without regard to their own safety, and may even run off the edge. Any chick that runs off the edge gets a saving throw against its own foolishness; if it fails, it falls off and is dead.

Saving the Chicks

As a move action, you can make a DC 20 Nature check in an attempt to calm/coax the chicks. If you succeed, each chick immediately takes a move action as you direct, and does not take one on its usual turn. Chicks have a move of 4 (and see the section on terrain).

As a move action, you can make a DC 22 check with some other skill to attempt to influence the behavior of the chicks. Iíll allow anything that seems reasonable (Arcana to produce compelling lights or noises, interpersonal skills, etc.). If you succeed, pick one of the following effects:
-- one chick immediately takes a move action as you direct (and none on its usual turn) or
-- all the chicks give up their move actions for the round and do nothing.

Regardless of how many attempts you make to influence the chicks, no chick may take more than one move action each round.

As a standard action, you can make a DC 14 Acrobatics or Athletics check to grab an adjacent chick and hold onto it to keep it safe. You must fulfill the usual conditions for maintaining a grab (hand free, not dazed, etc.). While grabbed, a chick in considered to be in your square, but cannot be targeted by attacks. Each round that you hold the chick, you must repeat the Acrobatics or Athletics check on your turn as a free action. If you fail, the chick escapes into an adjacent square and moves on its turn as usual.

If you successfully influence a chick that you are holding using one of the methods above, it will stop trying to escape for as long as you hold it. You do not need to make any further Acrobatics or Athletics checks.

The chicks count as your allies, and can be targeted by things that affect allies. They do not have any attacks, cannot flank, and they do not provoke OAs when they move. If you use an effect on a chick that allows it to spend a healing surge and recover hit points, it is fully healed by that effect.

Special rule on falling
Because falling off the rightmost edge would probably be fatal (and at the very least would take a character completely out of the fight), it is impossible for a PC or Sasha to fall off into the blue area during this fight. If you would fall off under the normal rules (i.e. you are forced over the edge and fail your save), then you stay prone on the edge and in addition become dazed until the end of your next turn.

Noriaki goes first, then the bad guys. Takahaan may use his daily for a reroll if he chooses.

Please place yourselves on the map in the L1-P4 region. The blue numbers on the flying creatures represent their elevation relative to the rough brown terrain that youíre on. From where you are, you canít see the nest, the chicks, or the pterosaur that dived down, but you can tell roughly where those things are.

Terrain and Elevation

All terrain is normal except for the nest, which is difficult terrain. The different shades of grey represent rock ledges at different elevations. The red numbers are elevations relative to the rough, light brown terrain at the top. (You can also tell where the drops are by the shadows: a thin shadow represents a 5-foot drop and a thick shadow represents a 10-foot drop.)

Moving to an adjacent square that is 5 feet higher or lower costs an extra square of movement. Moving to an adjacent square that is 10 feet higher or lower requires climbing (DC 15). Chicks can handle 5-foot changes without spending extra squares of movement, but they canít handle 10-foot changes at all.

Controlling Sasha

Companion NPCs in Combat

Any PC can take a standard, move, or minor action to have an NPC perform an action of the same (or a lesser) type. E.g., if you want Gelik to use Charm of Misplaced Wrath, you spend a standard action. If you want him to move, you spend a move action. An NPC is limited to the usual number of actions each round (but those actions need not all be granted by the same PC). An NPC who has an immediate action can likewise only use it if a PC has an immediate action available to use on his/her behalf.

NPCs can take free actions and opportunity actions normally, without the direction of PCs. They are always considered to have their weapons in hand and donít need to spend actions unsheathing them.

If all of the PCs act in a given round without giving any actions to a particular NPC, I will have that NPC take one non-offensive action. This will most likely be Second Wind if it is needed and available, and movement or Total Defense if it is not. (It wonít be necessary for PCs to spend their own standard actions to have NPCs use second wind.)